What was the original name of the Irish rock band, U2?

On September 25, 1968, a 14-year-old student named Larry Mullen tacked a note on his school’s bulletin board, searching for members for the “Larry Mullen Band” he was forming. That name did not fly, and the band called itself “Feedback”, which was one of the few terms any of the six members knew that was applicable to a band using electric guitars.

The six aspiring musicians—all students at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, Ireland—could not play very well. They realized that some established punk rock bands played was not much more technically proficient than their own, yet were very popular. So, they chose to play punk rock song covers.

Getting paid for the first time, Feedback played a concert at a local high school in April of 1977, and Feedback changed its name to “Hype”. In March of 1978, Steve Averill, a punk rocker with the “Radiators”—and a friend of Hype member Adam Clayton’s family—suggested six other names for the band. Disliking it the least, Hype chose its new name, “U2”.

Later that month, U2 won a talent contest in Limerick. The prize was £500 and studio time to record a demo record. At a concert in Howth, Dik Evans bid farewell to Hype and the audience as he walked off the stage after a set of covers. The four remaining band members took a break and returned as U-2 to play their original competitions.

Still active as of 2017, U2 has won 22 Grammy Awards and sold more than 170 million records.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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47 Comments

Richard Jamieson

Original band name was neither the Hype or Feedback, wasn’t it the Larry Mullen band before ?

Kevin Coleman

Hold it. They were known as the Larry Mullen Band, the Feedback and the Hype. You had two correct answers. BS question.

Don Viera

Very interesting. I still remember my cassette of Joshua Tree when it cam out in mid 80's. I knew they'd be great.

Eric Leif Peters

Not the original name.

Dani Smith

Clarify your question. All but one of these answers are correct.

frankphylp

Get your facts right...it was the Larry Mullen Band!

Brian Stone

Who cares.

ninakamwene

No idea

Karin Johansson

Mark Yakabuski, 1976 in one day after Larry had an audition at school.

Karin Johansson

Don Viera, a good one

Karin Johansson

Richard Jamieson, no it was not

Karin Johansson

Donna R. O'Brien Moran, no it was not. Do research before you complain

Jakob Gerber

I’m a professional musician , hence when I listen to music I immediately listen to the melody priori to the rhythm, and words. The melody of any given song is what you hear first . If a song is melodic ,then one may have an interest in all else in any given song. Chords,harmonies,lyrics and the all important rhythm. I could never understand the attraction to U2 . Their lyrics speak to a lot of people, which means they are saying something that people may relate to. However, there is such a lack of melody,harmony is non existent,rhythm ,and chord changes very rudimentary. There is nothing technical going on. In the bands defense , they play to a huge audience, and the words have meaning . U2 is the only very,very popular rock bands that sell their music strictly on the basis of the lyrics. That must be a joy for them as a band. The fact that people actually care about ,and relate to the words is about as high praise as you can get when you don’t have any technical skills, and just about completely void of the essentials of music. A group like the Beatles on the other hand had it all. The musicality was inherent from the beginning. Melodies to die for as composers . The Beatles had some duds, so has every other great composer/composers . Then their harmonies were inventive ,and always pitch perfect. Lyrics were sublime on possibly half their canon of something like two hundred,and thirty songs . Sadly U2 is possibly one of a handful at best that are still making music with a message , and don’t rely on technology in their recordings ( to any degree ) . The “current” state of popular music started to rapidly decay some time ago. At present we are at the nadir of musicality . Taylor Swift is the poster girl in respect to buying your way in, and “ co writing “ all her derivative hits. When you have to rely on algorithms to analyze if a recording is going to be a hit, it goes contrary to EVERYTHING MUSICAL ...

Marcella Kosse

It said original; only one can be the original name. The Larry Mullen Band was first, followed by Feedback, then The Hype. The Hype was the only one I knew, so got it wrong.

Donna R. O'Brien Moran

Hype was the name before it was U2. Give us our points!

Kathleen Kinyon

Since I knew it was Larry Mullen I figured I was relain the question wrong so I choose their name just prior to U2. I really think these questions should be better vetted.